A paper published on PLOS One breaks it down:

Playing certain types of video games for a long time can improve a wide range of mental processes, from visual acuity to cognitive control.

Stands to reason, since practice makes 1up.

Dian Schaffhauser, for Campus Technology:

The researchers said they aren’t exactly sure what’s happening in the brain of gamers that differs from non-gamers, but according to Yuka Sasaki, associate professor in the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences (CLPS) at Brown, the study suggests that gamers may have a more efficient process for hardwiring their visual task learning than non-gamers. “It may be possible that the vast amount of visual training frequent gamers receive over the years could help contribute to honing consolidation mechanisms in the brain, especially for visually developed skills,” the report stated.

“When we study perceptual learning we usually exclude people who have tons of video game playing time because they seem to have different visual processing. They are quicker and more accurate,” said Sasaki in a statement. “But they may be in an expert category of visual processing. We sometimes see that an expert athlete can learn movements very quickly and accurately and a musician can play the piano at the very first sight of the notes very elegantly, so maybe the learning process is also different. Maybe they can learn more efficiently and quickly as a result of training.”

I may be imagining it, but it feels like gaming has helped my driving. I’m able to ignore things that are just noise, and really focus on what I need to flow around disruption. Other drivers seem to “stick” to complex traffic formations, and slow down everyone behind them. Maybe it’s not related, but that’s what always occurs to me in those situations.